Elayne Riggs' Journal (for Leah)

Sunday, April 25, 2004

The Next Best Thing to Being There

We're a bit knackered after yesterday's marathon packing-and-throwing-away session, so Rob's sleeping and I'm catching up on blog-reading while I still can (there's a good chance I'll be without DSL at home for far longer than originally anticipated; more on that as it develops). And since I can't be in Washington today for this:


...I figured I might as well watch and listen to the streaming video clips provided by Planned Parenthood (click the above graphic to get to the video) whilst I catch up. Just saw a really keen interview snippet with a woman whose grandmother co-founded PP with Sanger; keen!

[Speaking of choice, I've been wondering whether I should weigh in on the debate du jour among the liberal and left blogosphere, which started off as musings about tolerance toward religious bigots (for the record, I don't get why anyone should feel the need to tolerate bigotry) but quickly shifted into some bloggers saying things about religion which upset other bloggers who perceived the discussion as being about them when I figured they were directed against people like those currently in power who pervert religious messages of love and compassion and caring for those less well off than oneself... Anyway, my whole take on the "kerfuffle" is that I consider religious belief itself - as opposed to rituals and customs, on which I do comment often in this blog - to be a sensitive and private matter, between a believer and his or her deity of choice (even if that deity is "the God within"), and just as I think consenting adults should be able to do whatever they want behind closed bedroom and bathroom doors, I think they should also believe whatever they want behind closed temple doors - as long as it doesn't get in my face, I'm cool with it. Once it does get in my face, I have every right to counter a religious fanatic's free speech with some choice words of my own.]

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